Noisy Power. What do I need? UPS or line conditioner

[Anonymous user]

I just moved into a new apartment and the power is terrible. The space is forcing me to combine all of my A/V and computer gear into the main room. I want to set up two media center areas. I need advice on how to best power each setup. I have 15A fuses and the standard household outlets to work with. I have tested the sockets and they seem to be functioning normally. I am having an electrical noise issue in the form of a very high pitch sound being emitted from the computer power supplies, processors, monitors, HD LCD, and modem. I am not exactly sure the cause of the noise but I am guessing its power related because it started with the new apartment. I am currently using Belkin power surge protected power bars. Is there way to test what kind of noise/ interference is being generated? Can a UPS extend the available power from a regular household socket? How far does 15A go? How do i know if a line condition is the right product or do I need a UPS? Brownouts are not an issue.
I want to have the Yamaha Receiver 500W/630VA, PSB Speakers, Sharp LCD 250W, Router, Modem, PC Power and Cooling 750W power, AMD CPU 125W, Video Cards 200W Asus MoBo 75W on the same outlet. Is this okay?
What is recommend? The second setup is draws less power but has the same issue. PC Power and Cooling 650W power, AMD CPU 125W, Video Cards 260W, Asus MoBo 75W, Dell 24' monitor,PC speakers. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. The buzz is keeping me from gaming and enjoying my home theater. I need to fix this electrical noise soon. Thanks for your time. Please Help. J

[BillP · Accepted solution]

a lot of times if you hear noises and hums, you might have a ground loop.

A ground loop is an unintentionally induced feedback loop caused by two or more circuits sharing a common electrical ground.

to double check if thats the issue, you could unplug everything thats making noise then plug everything in one at a time and see if the noise starts after a certain device is connected. remember to try a couple devices by themselves incase the problem is with the first device you plug in.

15 amp circuits shouldnt be maxed out at more than 12 amps per national electrical code on a circuit.

a UPS cannot 'extend' power. it is limited by its own watt and volt amp capacity on the 'battery outlets.' some UPSs also have surge only outlets and they are limited by the circuit rating at the wall outlet. a 15 amp circuit maxes out at 1440 volt amps (12amps * 120v) so you cannot draw more than that per electrical code. a UPS may only be rated at 500VA and thats as much power that can be backed up through it.

i am not too sure on an easy way for you to find out what TYPE of electrical noise/interference you have besides trying the ground loop idea as i mentioned. if you have or can get an oscilliscope and it will show you a picture of the sine wave that is coming out of the electrical socket. an experienced electrician may be able to see something from that. but that costs money of course so i dont want to tell you to go out and do that before you research this a little more and do some additional troubleshooting with what we can figure out here.

it sounds like you'd just need a power conditioner, if anything, but i'd recommend figuring out where the noise is coming from first so that we can find out if its something more upstream, such as a problem with the outlets or something that needs to be fixed by someone else.

a UPS will give you battery back up and you havent mentioned that so i am assuming you dont need it. the UPSs do some line conditioning but we also have power conditioners/filters for audio video products.

hope this helps.